.....a King and Queen ruled their subjects from a very elegant castle. Although this particular castle had everything their hearts desired, the King and Queen were not very happy. For one thing, the castle was quite cold. Indeed, the place was so cold that they were forced to wear blankets over their robes just to keep themselves warm --- which certainly did not make this Royal Couple look like a King and Queen in the least.
And that wasn't all.
It was, at best, an annoying situation, but the fact was --- to put it bluntly --- the King and Queen couldn't sleep. Night after night, Their Majesties were being kept awake by the most horrifying sounds imaginable. Those sounds belonged to a dragon who lived in a nearby cave at the top of the adjoining hill, a few miles away from the castle.
Every single night, this dragon would roar as loudly as possible. It was a sound so fierce that it literally awoke most of the village!
However, there was, as often happens in tales such as this, an opposite side to this particular situation. In the dragon's case, it was this: This poor fellow was the loneliest dragon in the world. He was, by his own choice, a rather tame beast; but nobody in the Kingdom seemed to believe that, unfortunately. He'd always wanted to have someone pay him a visit, or, at least, spend enough time with him so that he might be able to share his favorite beverage --- strawberry flavored herbal tea.
But, alas, the majority of the villagers were afraid of him.... and as a result, he was always being left alone. So off he would ramble, back to his deep, dark cave. And there he'd sit, all alone, feeling incredibly lonely! In fact, the dragon's loneliness was such that, night after night, he howled in sorrowful anguish; and big, huge, dragon tears would drip uncontrollably down his cheeks!
Well, it wasn't long before the King decided that something would have to be done about that dragon. So late one morning, he summoned his Knights. There were four big Knights --- and one little Knight.
"I can't get any sleep," complained the King. "Go do something about that dragon!"
"What exactly should we do, Your Majesty?" asked one of the big Knights.
"Oh, do whatever you like," grumbled the King, "as long as it keeps that dragon quiet!"
So off the Knights went to do something about the dragon. It wasn't much of a climb, but they did make it to the top of the hill where stood the entrance to the dragon's cave. Suddenly, quite unexpectedly, they heard the horrible sound of the dragon roaring! The big Knights were so frightened by all that noise that they just turned tail and ran!
But the Little Knight just kept on going. He had always been a brave Little Knight --- and he certainly wasn't afraid of any ol' dragon! On he went, past the entrance and into the dragon's cave.
When he entered the heart of the cave, he found himself in for a most unexpected surprise. There, as he had hoped, was the dragon. But the dragon was not behaving ferociously at all. In fact, he was crying! There he sat, his scaly head hung shamefully. In one furry paw, he wielded his trusty, dragon-sized handkerchief; and at his feet was a huge puddle filled with all his tears!
The Little Knight's heart went out to the poor fellow. "Oh, you poor, dear beast!" he said.
The dragon noticed the Little Knight. "Oh, it's you," he muttered between sobs. "Well, you might as well get on with it."
"Get on with what?"
"Slaying me, of course!" sobbed the dragon. "I'd rather be slain by a Knight than spend the rest of me days living like this!"
"Oh, I couldn't," said the Little Knight. "I don't think it would be wise for me to slay a dragon with tears in his eyes! Maybe if you told me why you're crying, perhaps I could help."
"Well, you'd cry, too," the dragon continued his lament, "if you were the loneliest dragon in the world! Everybody's afraid of me. No one even bothers to pay me a visit, let alone sample my strawberry flavored herbal tea! The old-timers are the worst of the lot, too!"
"You mean, among the Humans," the Little Knight commented.
"Yes, the Humans. They always take their children away whenever they try to approach me, and they say 'You stay away from that dirty old dragon!' And they run and hide whenever I'm trying to gather strawberries for my tea recipe! And you know what the really worst thing about all this is?"
"What?"
"I don't have any friends!" sobbed the dragon again. That puddle of tears was growing larger every minute.
"Well, I've come to see you," said the Little Knight. "If you like, I can bring a sample of your strawberry tea back to the castle with me, so that I can prove how tame you really are. That does mean, of course, that I'll have to bring you along as well."
"And you'd do that because you aren't afraid of me?"
"No, I'm doing it because I would certainly be honored to be your very first friend. And anyway, you do owe the King and Queen an apology."
"I do?" said the dragon.
"Well, you have been keeping everybody awake with all those howls of anguish," said the Little Knight.
"I'm sorry," said the dragon. And he meant it with all his heart. "But what's a lonely dragon to do?" And again, those huge dragon tears began to stream down his scaly face.
"Well, you could live with us at the castle," suggested the Little Knight. "I'm sure you're a true fire-breather, as all dragons are. Maybe, those fiery nostrils of yours could come in handy --- just to keep our castle warm. And who knows? Why, maybe you could share your strawberry tea with the King and Queen."
"You mean, I could really live with Their Majesties --- and serve them my tea?" sniffled the dragon, who all of a sudden was beginning to feel a little better. "Oh joy!" And at that, the beast snorted happily. Within an instant, fire did indeed begin to blaze from his huge nostrils. In seconds, the cave was nice and toasty warm.
"Thank you so much, Sir Knight," the dragon finally said, as he sniffled a happy sniffle, and blew his nose. "I can't tell you how happy you've made me!" And once more, he burst into tears --- but at least this time, his tears were happy ones. And since the Little Knight was just as happy for the dragon --- and since there was enough dragon-stench in the cave to cause his own copious flow of lachyrmal fluid, anyway --- the Knight did the sensible thing: he joined the dragon in a joyous sniffle or two.
Oh yes, it was quite a happy morning the two new friends spent in the dragon's cave, each wielding a hankie, each sniffling happily between sobs, both their faces drenched with the happiest of tears! Finally, to seal their new friendship, the Little Knight and the dragon blew their noses simultaneously --- and it was probably the happiest sniffle anyone had ever heard!
When the Little Knight finally returned to the castle, the dragon by his side, at first the King and Queen were somewhat frightened of him. "No fear, Your Majesties," said the Little Knight. "He'll be living with us from now on --- to keep the castle warm and share his favorite tea with you. That is, if it's all right with you."
And proudly, the dragon snorted! Fire shot out of those mighty nostrils, and the beast smiled joyously. Before long, the King and Queen threw off their heavy old blankets --- and found themselves once again looking like a King and Queen!
And, once again, that wasn't all.
As it turned out, the King did indeed like strawberry flavored herbal tea. So did the Queen. Why, even the big Knights enjoyed the dragon's tea; and they all apologized to the big fellow for being so afraid of him. The dragon, for his part, forgave the big Knights, for he really was a rather tame sort of dragon, after all.
The King smiled as he took his brightly-jeweled sword from the folds of his royal-purple-and-ermine robes. "Dragon," he said, "your heart is pure, your fire is quite warm, and you make the finest strawberry tea in all the land! As far as I'm concerned, one name best describes your many talents. Please lower your head."
The dragon did as he was told; and then the King tapped each of the dragon's scales gently as he said, "From this day on, you shall be called Heartburn; and I henceforth declare the Little Knight to be your protector and guardian. Oh yes --- and best friend, as well. And take comfort in this knowledge: I vow that you shall have as many friends as your humble heart desires. And so --- arise, Sir Heartburn the Dragon!"
"Thank you all, my new friends!" smiled Sir Heartburn. And to the Little Knight, he said, "And thank you, my first and best friend!" Then he gave all his new friends a big, loving dragon hug!
So there you are. That's the Tale of the Little Knight. If you should visit that castle one day, you would find its Throne Room filled with some very, very happy people:
Of course, the King and Queen are happy, because their castle is warm, and they have a dragon who is very quiet (during the night, of course!), and is very versatile --- especially when it comes to making strawberry flavored herbal tea!
Even happier than the King and Queen is that very dragon in question, Sir Heartburn, resting comfortably on the biggest pillows in the Kingdom. Unquestionably, Sir Heartburn is happy because no one is afraid of him anymore, and he has lots of friends, and has lots and lots of strawberries to pick whenever he needs to make more tea.
But happiest of all is the Little Knight, Sir Heartburn's very first, and very best friend (not to mention, his protector and guardian!). And as you can imagine, the Little Knight is happy because --- well, everybody else is happy. And since everybody here is pretty much happy, there's nothing else left to say except.....